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Manti Te'o's girlfriend who died... (3 Viewers)
- Thread starter GDogg
- Start date
Bigboy10182000
Footballguy
My comment was made prior to the combine. Had I known what his combine would look like I would have gone in a different direction. He'll be a star in SD though!
Raider Nation
Devil's Advocate
pantherclub
Footballguy
Time Kibitzer
Footballguy
Wasn't pantherclub the guy who was saying Te'o would be a 4th/5th round pick at best?
Mr. Pickles
Footballguy
Sig bets are for... well... men that prefer the company of men.
Good Posting Judge
Footballguy
tommyGunZ
Footballguy
mad sweeney
Footballguy
That's what all the Leaf fans said when I lived down there...tommyGunZ said:
Raider Nation
Devil's Advocate
It's funny how a white wide receiver dropping an N-bomb and a tight end who goes around killing people makes what happened to Te'o seem like nothing. I figured this would haunt him for years, but even his teammates never bust his balls about it (so he said in an interview yesterday). All that remains to be seen now is whether he can play football or not.
Raider Nation
Devil's Advocate
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SacramentoBob
Footballguy
He looked awful in the only preseason game I saw him in.
Somebody
Footballguy
Raider Nation
Devil's Advocate
So is this guy any good, or what? The little I've seen of him in preseason, he routinely gets beaten to the edge by even the slowest RBs.
Does he offer anything special on the field?
Does he offer anything special on the field?
WDIK2
Footballguy
Untold: The Girlfriend That Didn't Exist (Netflix)
Very good documentary about this story. I didn't remember all the details from back then or how big of a story it was. Pretty bizarre at times. Manti seems like a good dude.
BTW, the search function on the new forum is great.
Very good documentary about this story. I didn't remember all the details from back then or how big of a story it was. Pretty bizarre at times. Manti seems like a good dude.
BTW, the search function on the new forum is great.
culdeus
Footballguy
Always funny to see this guy pop up in the last couple pages of a thread.
TheAristocrat
Footballguy
Well, I only knew a third of that story.Untold: The Girlfriend That Didn't Exist (Netflix)
Very good documentary about this story. I didn't remember all the details from back then or how big of a story it was. Pretty bizarre at times. Manti seems like a good dude.
BTW, the search function on the new forum is great.
BobbyLayne
Footballguy
I thought they did a great job with this doc. It was a massive story at the time but I didn’t know all the details, just remember it was so bizarre and so hard to believe/understand.
Major
Footballguy
Interesting they made a doc on this. I'll def check it out. I remember the 
storm and media frenzy all of this caused. It was hilarious and a bit sad because he seemed like a good guy and probably cost him draft position and endorsement money. In current day with all the video technology, you really have to be an idiot or just oblivious to get catfished.
storm and media frenzy all of this caused. It was hilarious and a bit sad because he seemed like a good guy and probably cost him draft position and endorsement money. In current day with all the video technology, you really have to be an idiot or just oblivious to get catfished.
Dinsy Ejotuz
Footballguy
The catfisher messed Teo's life up -- no one deserves that.
CletiusMaximus
Footballguy
Fantastic Thread. The good old days …
Dan Lambskin
Footballguy
Wife said she heard it was good and then 5 minutes in said wait it’s about football and said she was bored
offdee
Footballguy
Lol, that’s like saying Breaking Bad was about science teachers.
BobbyLayne
Footballguy
I also liked their decision to tell both sides.
What Niya did was terrible, malicious, deceitful, et al - she had infinite number of chances to end it, no one would have been any the wiser. She took advantage of a giving person who was prone to being a people pleaser, an obedient son & loyal teammate. He has a sheltered life & what she did was just awful.
But they didn’t take the easy route of demonizing her. They made her human. I don’t know if it made her sympathetic, because everything about it was wrong. But it helped the viewer to understand better how it all progressed over several years.
But they didn’t take the easy route of demonizing her. They made her human. I don’t know if it made her sympathetic, because everything about it was wrong. But it helped the viewer to understand better how it all progressed over several years.
ETA: we have spoiler tags!
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ComfortablyNumb
Footballguy
It's really tragic how Roniah effed up Manti's life. He was/is a great, if perhaps gullible, guy. Nobody should have to be abused like that, and those memes and cartoons were the worst. I hope Manti has found peace and happiness and wish Roniah had been prosecuted and imprisoned.
Jaysus
Good times!
your spoiler is well said, and spot on.
Sand
Footballguy
Despite your spoiler Niya still deserves a good punch in the mouth.
Jaysus
Good times!
also well said, and spot on.
Zow
Footballguy
Yeah. I watched this with my wife and I think we're both pretty sympathetic people. However, we both expressed the challenge we were having in feeling any sort of sympathy towards her. She said something near the end of the film (something about how people will understand how hard it was for her or something) that made us both go, "wow - she remains tone deaf and still doesn't get it."
Very good documentary though. Hard not to feel for Manti and think that Niya didn't cost him millions of dollars.
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Zow
Footballguy
Watch it.Interesting they made a doc on this. I'll def check it out. I remember the
Also, Niya's/Roneiya's ability to mask their voice to sound like a hot female at the time was so impressive that it fooled a voice analyzer. So, while I agree with the claim that he was gullible, a few things:
1. Catfishing wasn't really a thing back then as an understood possibility. I know it existed, but I don't think it was as mainstream as it became after the MTV show.
2. I could see somebody like Manti - who presumably had like no free time and whose religion discourages sex before marriage - enjoying the relative ease of a distance relationship while in college.
3. Niya/Roneiya is really, really good at catfishing.
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Major
Footballguy
Watch it.Interesting they made a doc on this. I'll def check it out. I remember the
Also, Niya's/Roneiya's ability to mask their voice to sound like a hot female at the time was so impressive that it fooled a voice analyzer. So, while I agree with the claim that he was gullible, a few things:
1. Catfishing wasn't really a thing back then as an understood possibility. I know it existed, but I don't think it was as mainstream as it became after the MTV show.
2. I could see somebody like Manti - who presumably had like no free time and whose religion discourages sex before marriage - enjoying the relative ease of a distance relationship while in college.
3. Niya/Roneiya as really, really good at catfishing.
Yep. I was stating in current day with FaceTime etc, not 2012.
Zow
Footballguy
Ah, my bad.Watch it.Interesting they made a doc on this. I'll def check it out. I remember the
Also, Niya's/Roneiya's ability to mask their voice to sound like a hot female at the time was so impressive that it fooled a voice analyzer. So, while I agree with the claim that he was gullible, a few things:
1. Catfishing wasn't really a thing back then as an understood possibility. I know it existed, but I don't think it was as mainstream as it became after the MTV show.
2. I could see somebody like Manti - who presumably had like no free time and whose religion discourages sex before marriage - enjoying the relative ease of a distance relationship while in college.
3. Niya/Roneiya as really, really good at catfishing.
Yep. I was stating in current day with FaceTime etc, not 2012.
DJackson10
Footballguy
Yeah it sucks what they did and should be in jail but I don't think any of this should've been as popular and open as it was. It simple was because he played football at Notre Dame. I remember before he was even drafted there was talk about this guy not being a day 2 pick. I feel bad for the guy but it never should'e been as public as it was.
wlwiles
Footballguy
I remember when this was all happening but I guess had forgotten about the whole "is Manti in on this whole thing, and is it covering up him being gay?" aspect of it, and how that affected his draft stock and likely contributed to him sliding to the second round. Te'o was drafted in 2013, one year before Michael Sam was the first openly gay player drafted...
belljr
Footballguy
tl;dr was catfished ......... his mistake which understandable is once it came out was he let the story keep going because of embarrassment on how they met online and never in person. THis was in 2009/2010 so it was new, and he lived a sheltered bubble
That being said - the person that did it was masterful - somehow real life people vouched to Manti who they were, and there were other actors plus phone calls an emails.
person even got a real life picture of the girl whose pictures he was using to send an update ffs
moleculo
Footballguy
Did this really cost him millions of dollars?
IIRC, some people had him as a 1st rounder, but it wasn't clear cut unanimous. And when he got to the NFL, it's not like his play blew the doors off the league. His 40 time of 4.82 probably cost him more than anything else. In the pro's, he seemed to struggle staying healthy.
With full benefit of hindsight, early 2nd feels about right, or even a tad high.
IIRC, some people had him as a 1st rounder, but it wasn't clear cut unanimous. And when he got to the NFL, it's not like his play blew the doors off the league. His 40 time of 4.82 probably cost him more than anything else. In the pro's, he seemed to struggle staying healthy.
With full benefit of hindsight, early 2nd feels about right, or even a tad high.
offdee
Footballguy
I think the idea is that his confidence was so shot by this whole thing that he could never play "fast" anymore and it had him thinking versus reacting. So the 40 time didn't help, but his top tangible of "Leadership and natural Instincts" were severely damaged. There was one quote on the show that was something like "after hearing this story, what teammate is gonna look at him as a leader anymore?". So true.
Zow
Footballguy
Yep. I think it easily cost him millions. He was a Heisman finalist, projected mid-rounder, etc. The documentary really did a nice job of showing how his confidence got shot, how his combine/draft process was a ****show with all the bad media publicity, and how teams - who I think did become aware that he was innocent in the whole thing - thought less of him though.
Te'o seemed like the type of player whose best attribute was his leadership. In that sense, he's got added value - despite maybe the mediocre combine numbers - for his leadership and on-field ability to be in the right places, etc. Kind of like, maybe, a Draymond Green, Nick Foles, Gary Carter, Ray Lewis, Tom Brady, Derek Jeter type players where they exceed their physical stats. That was gone though for him because he was looked at as gullible and his confidence, as mentioned, was shot.
Zow
Footballguy
Well, the problem though was that ESPN/Notre Dame made it public. And, frankly, I don't blame them too much because it was a pretty crazy story where the leader of the most popular team was believed to have his grandma and girlfriend die on the same day so the story writes itself.
In the documentary I thought it came across pretty strongly that Deadspin exposed the story as a way to get at ESPN (and not necessarily Manti). And, of course, the public then loves nothing more than a fall from grace story. Got to remember as well that "catfishing" was not a prevalently known thing, either, so hence the jumps to opinations that he was in on it and could have been gay or whatever.
I think it was clear-cut unanimous when his final college season ended (with some expecting him to go in the top five or top ten).
Then after the combine and pro-day workouts and everything else, by the time the draft rolled around, he was generally thought to be on the late-first, early-second bubble. He just wasn't that big or fast or powerful, and his tremendous instincts in college didn't fully carry over to the pros.
(I haven't seen the documentary yet.)
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